Gordon began to unravel after he and his wife separated, catapulting him into a state in which he was “suffering deeply, deeply from depression and mental illness,” according to his sister.
“He loses his wife, he lose his happy home, he was gone,” she said. “He lost his job. He just lost it.”
As she watched her brother’s mental health deteriorate, the concerned sister took Gordon to mental health facilities — but he was routinely released.
“They’re telling me he’s a grown man [and] because of his age, I couldn’t sign the consent and give him the treatment,” she said. “I really tried because I know he wasn’t stable.”
Gordon, a father of three, bounced from shelter to shelter before Watson took pity on him and welcomed him into her home.
“My aunt, she’s a sweetheart,” his sister said. “She’s a wonderful person.”
“I didn’t think anything like this would happen,” she added. “He said he was going to try to get a job.”
The distraught woman recalled watching the news shortly after the stabbings and called Watson when she recognized the street name.
"Shortly after, she learned her brother had killed
four of her family members and critically wounded two police officers responding to a 911 call made by a young girl who said her cousin was “killing her family members.”
All of the victims lived together in the house, according to Gordon’s sister. Their names have not yet been released by police.
“I cant describe how distraught I am,” she said. “I tried my very best. You don’t even know how much I tried.”
Gordon’s sister reflected on the life her brother had before mental illness consumed him and remembers him as a caring, loving man despite Sunday’s horrors.
“He was a good person. He was happy,” she said. “I just want everybody to know mental illness is really serious. It really is.”
In a brief interview with The News, Gordon’s mother, who asked not to be named, referred to him as a “good son.”
“I spoke to him yesterday. He just said to me, ‘Mama, I love you,'” I said, ‘I love you too, son’ — and then I get the news.”
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